Hi I’m Rachel D! Going 6 months strong at Crossfit South Brooklyn. My job as a hairstylist is the love of my life! But second place goes to all things Health & Fitness. McDowell brought those worlds together when he came in to talk hair + weights. Check out his gorgeous goldilocks lately & if you like, come see me too! Book all cut + color appointments at Fringe Salon (212) 674-8383. And check out my world at RachelDowningHair.com!
- The lost and found inventory will be donated to CHIPS every other week. Check out the what’s in there currently on our Flickr.
- On Thanksgiving we will be running 3 morning group classes at 8am, 9am and 10am. The gym will be closed otherwise!
Kettlebell Kitchen at CFSBK!
Want to make eating healthy Paleo meals easier? Check out our in house paleo partners, Kettlebell Kitchen– your go to for Paleo & Zone meals! Food for CrossFitters by CrossFitters, Kettlebell Kitchen is an easy & convenient way to get top notch nutrition delivered right to the box. We’ve tasted the food ourselves, and we think it’s great!
The complete menu, along with ingredient lists and nutrition facts can be found here: MENU
Ordering instructions and FAQs can be found here: FAQs
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If you could take a year long hiatus from your life to learn as much as you could about any subject matter, what would it be?
I'd learn the slide guitar and play Grimy blues/rock
Psychology with a focus on Jung
McHAIRCUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CF MNL Group Class
Alternate EMOTM for 10min:
5 Push Press at 135#
5 Strict Pull-Ups
Rest 5 min
Then 5 rounds for time (7min cap)
12 Box Jump @ 24"
6 S2O @ 115#
6 Pull Ups
Finished in 6:10 and nearly puked for the first time in a long time. Good to get a little conditioning in now and then I suppose.
If I had a year I'd probably study music and learn how to play an instrument or two more proficiently than "good enough for rock and roll."
I'd play golf for a year straight, and put the finishing touches on my spanish
6am with Jess and Goldilocks
Clean: worked up to 190, although it wasn't really a squat clean: caught it in a power clean with a bad rack, then somehow rode it down while repositioning the rack, then stood it up. Jess described it as "crazy". I have no idea how that worked, but I'm still gonna consider it a PR 🙂 Need to work on getting lower, dropping faster.
FSQ: 215, 225F
215 is a 1RM PR, which is cool.
@MGMT–
Question: Wednesdays WOD? 2 lifts or WOD? I left my nanos at home and am trying to figure out if I should run home after work to get them, or just go straight to CFSBK with my OLYs in my bag.
gracias
Rachel, the photos on your pretty web site are so fun! And McDowell's locks look lovely.
What a great question. If I had a year to study anything, I would beg the author Jim Harrison to let me live on his ranch in Livingston, Montana and be his apprentice. He's been on Anthony Bourdain's show, so I'm assuming that in addition to studying writing and reading for most of the day, I would also learn to cook exceptionally well, shoot lots of guns, live with minimal technology, stare at rivers, and feel lots of things deeply.
I'd probs also get super lonely and miss my friends, but I guess that's a good accessory subject to study, too.
Assuming I could take the husband with me, I think I'd move to Berlin for a year to work on my German.
Love the McHairstyle pic!
I would travel Asia with my backpack to learn/cook as many regional dishes that I could.
6am BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE with lady fox and golidlocks. New PR's and 1RM's on both lifts today. I danced and had some high five action. About damn time as 2013 has tried really hard to crush me into the ground with disasters so this was personally epic. I swear since I switched to Chucks from Inov8s for lifts the magic has been happening right and left.
There was something else but now I don't remember.
My answer to the QOD is one of those trick answers…I would travel the globe on a motorcycle which would allow me to do all kinds of stuff like:
work on my riding skills in all kinds of weather, meet all kinds of people, read and write for pleasure (instead of work) since I'd surely be holed up in cafes and shitty motels during downpours, and to spend some time outside of a daily routine. I'd likely learn lots about local food and drink as well.
Agriculture.
6am with Jess and McGoldilocks. Hang clean: 134, 184, 204, 224, 234, 244, 259F, 259F. Yeah, probably should have made a smaller jump at the end, but my 1RM is 255 and the rep at 244 felt so good that I decided to go for it. Got under the weight really nicely on the first attempt, but was a little soft on the catch and couldn't stand it up. Similar story on the second rep, though the catch was worse. Front squat: 135, 185, 225, 245, 260, 270 (5# PR). The rep at 270 moved smoothly with only a little loss of upper-back tightness.
QOD: I'd study cooking, language and wine in France, Spain or Italy.
QOD: I'd go to Greece to study painting with George Rorris
QOD: Wildlife Photographer–anywhere.
I would just follow Fox around on my motorcycle. This way, I'd never have to be bothered with looking at a map, and I will just freeload off whatever he is learning to cook/mix. I bring nothing to the table in this scenario. But while he is off soul searching and writing poetry in his diary and stuff, I am hanging out with whatever bands happens to also be passing through the shitty motel, and they teach me how to play instruments and I sing/jam with them for funsies. Partly because that is what I want to do, but partially because, Fox never actually invited me on this trip, so it's possible I'm just following from a creepy distance.
QOD
Babymaking is, of course, the first thing that pops to mind. Exercise physiology would be the second (which, I guess, is sorta related to the first).
I would happily disappear to a farm somewhere very remote and learn cheese making, aging, and animal care.
I would wake up really hungry every morning and make hearty breakfasts with newly gathered eggs, raw milk, and freshly churned butter. Somehow I would end up having a baby and staying there forever.
QOD
I would divide my time into 4 seasons and spend my year on slopes around the world, Chile, Japan, Switzerland, and British Columbia, and become the best rider I can be. (Maybe heli drop in Alaska, because thats hela-scary)
Changing the subject back to Noah's article about shoes, the Nike Free Bionic are half price at Finish Line -$55 including shipping (for women only, sorry guys). They're the the minimalist Nike model. http://www.finishline.com/store/catalog/product.jsp?productId=prod724391
On that note, I recently bought a pair of Reebok CrossFit Nano Speed which I've used a hand full of times. They're half a size too big, so I'm giving them away since I can't return them. Size 9.5, run true to size, mostly gray, with pink & orange. If anyone needs a new pair of shoes in that size, shoot me an email: berrios.michelle (at) gmail.com
http://shop.reebok.com/us/product/women-reebok-crossfit-nano-speed-shoes/ER804
Cleans this morning (using a metric bar and standard plates, hence the weird weights)
134, 184, 214, 229, 239 (PR 3#) Still moving up a few pounds a week. This felt good, but my back was really smoked from Sunday's DLs
Front Squat – 135×5, 185×3, 225×1, 245×1, 260 (F). Back was pretty sore and didn't want to push it. On a good day I would have had 260+ so I'll re-test sometime soon
QOD – I'd study music, either blues guitar or piano
I think I would if I could spend a year studying under David Kelly at Stanford (assuming I got into his program)
Otherwise take a year to just do things I always wanted to do. (Assuming money is not an issue)
Including building a motorcycle, learning to drive one and getting my lic.
Create at least one new painting
skydive again
hang glide
scuba dive
see Spain
Snowboard again in Japan
Write a book
Olympic lifting. Duh.
Otherwise, illustration. All the mediums, all the subjects.
QOD – probably something similar to Crystal. Plus I'd like to learn to garden and quilt while I'm out there (at a different remote farm). Maybe the farm is in a foreign country and I can learn a new language and culture while I'm at it? Maybe I'm just getting greedy…
Make-up post from yesterday.
3Rds: 400m run, 21 KB swings (16 kg), and 12 push-ups (strict) in 12:09, I think. Push-ups were slooooow.
I only got through 4 Rds of the NFT work: :20 hollow hold, 10 DB press (strict, 15#), and 5 chin-ups (strict, but with coach's assist).
Theme of the night: I want to get better at the strict body weight movements!!!
i'd make kick ass pizza
Gymnastics Fun today.
Got to connect a round off to double back handsprings today with some good success. Also trying to connect a front handspring to anything, even just a dive roll. tuff stuff
I've thought about this question all day and can't really come to a hard conclusion. Part of me has always thought it would be really fulfilling to learn how to live off the land, create shelter, understand weather patterns, fish, hunt, read the stars etc. I feel like we're all missing something really special about living on this planet by being city dwellers .
Or I could study marine biology or geology with a heavy emphasis on deep sea cave diving.
5:30 class, did Monday's workout. Cashout first with 25# DBs, then the WOD. I've never done piked pushups before, it probably looked more like a crumpled up elevated pushup disaster. When Josh came by to suggest a more piked pose, I gagged a little in my abs. So now I know that this is a thing you can do, and I have done it. Hooray for knowledge!
Finished in 11:03 with the 24kg kb. Didn't particularly push it on the row, but surprised myself and did the first one pretty fast at a 1:45 pace.
QOD: this is impossible for me. I have no idea. I ask myself this all the time. Part of my problem is that I'm actually happy here and I like the way my life is going. But I do wish I could spend more time writing, and cooking. I also wish I could spend all my time trail running. But I think if I did that for a year, it would not be so special anymore.
Clean+Front squat+Jerk
220
242, 242
264,264, 264, 264
Split Jerk stance Press
132×5
154×5
164x5x2
GHD situps-60
Id go live in Yosemite for the year and climb.
BTK Power Clean: #63, #83, #93, #103, #113, #123-PR, #133-F
So happy I got that 123. It felt really great. I think once I realize how much is on the bar, I psych myself out. I always pull the ones that I fail on, up to my face, but freak and don't get my elbows under. Next time!
Westside back squat 20"box : #95×3, #105×3, #115x3x3
These are feeling not as great the last two times. No pain, just…kind of grinding at the bottom? I can't describe it properly. Worried it was form but Jeremy said they're looking good. We'll see.
Cash out: 50 RR (10,10,15,15), 50 reverse lunges with 12kg –went light because I didn't know how the right hip would do with my standard 16-20kg. Row 550
I would totally take a year off and learn how to work with big animals…specifically big cats. Because THIS!!
I'd go to a fancy cooking school or apprentice as a butcher, and then stage at Noma, where I would learn to forage and participate in their Sunday night cook-offs.
Hello again! Did Monday's WOD at 7:30, which Josh organized beautifully. 10:06 with 16kg kb and piked HSPU. My rows were around 1:30-1:40, so that helped my time, but I think I need to go the next level up from piked HSPU. Lauren suggested just doing the Rx thing of actual HSPU. Ehhhh… not sure if I'm there yet, but I'll test it out.
Accessory work with hollow holds, banded mixture of pull-ups and chin-ups, and presses with 20lb dumbbells.
This was one of my favorite nights at the gym in a while. How did so many good people end up under one roof?
@Kate R, I love your posts today. And most days.
QOD: I would go live in Costa Rica and dive into two subjects at once: surfing and Spanish. I would learn the language for real and I would hopefully come back a kickass surfer, as opposed to the mediocre one I am now. It's also jungle living, so I'd get a lot of that outdoors-y education, too.
Post from 10AM class today with Jess. Yesterday's work:
WOD in 12:10: 400m row, 21kb swings face height 16kg (some were OH, but just on accident), 6 HSPU's (kipping with 2 abmats). scaled the volume on the hspu's so that I wouldn't overdo it on my wrist. I didn't have pain during the movement so figured I was good to go but that 18 reps would be smarter than 36.
Definitely feel my lack of cardiorespiratory endurance after a few wks off. But it'll come back!!
accessory work:
4 rounds of 15 hollow rocks, 10 -15# db presses, and 3-5 pull-ups with green band. The torque on the chins grip hurts, so just went overhand. WOW… i tried one strict pull-up at the beginning and couldn't get it. I'm just happy to be moving and relatively pain-free at the moment!
Struggled on Mondays wod… Barely finished under the cap at 14:47. My lower back was all kinds of upset from heavy dead lifts and a 6k row this weekend.
I have given this lots of thought… I would hire professional help to teach me how to sail starting in Chicago… Through the Great Lakes, welland canal, Champlain, Hudson, and then the Atlantic. Then I would ditch the help and sail to Cape Horn and then back up the other side. I'd arrive somewhere in the Aleutians islands and spend a season crab fishing… Hopefully star on deadliest catch. Then I'd come back to NYC a whole different person.
QOD: I would spend the year living off the grid.
Strength Cycle:
Squats – 155x2x4
Bench – 80×1 (failed the 2nd rep) 77.5x2x3
Deadlifts – 185x2x2
Deadlifts felt really heavy to tonight. Bench I was focused or braced at 80, 77.5 felt good, last rep was a grind. Squats felt great.
Feeling strong.
I can teach you shelter building David.
Fire making too
Hunting might be difficult in the city and you're more lucky to eat if you can fish in the wild.
There is a foraging class you can take in prospect park to learn some plants you can eat, just putting it out there.
Night navigation is one of the biggest fails for special forces training, I can't teach you that. Also, the light pollution here makes it difficult.
two PR tuesday! whe!
4:30 Class with Josh and Jeremy:
All Hail 2PRTuesday:
#95 on the cleans (was at #78 two weeks ago and took a week off)
and got 2/3 attempts at #135 on the front squat. Bailed on the last one.
Was at a wonky 103 two weeks ago so this felt HUGE.
Everything about today made me want to jump for joy. Seriously. At the gym I tried to play it all cool, but when I got home, there was jumping.
BIG BIG BIG thanks to Jeremy for encouraging me to go heavier. Fear is a fucker.
As for the QOD – this is one I think about a lot these days….
I think i'd spend one third of the year down in Argentina fixing up my spanish and learn puppetry. Then I'd spend the rest 1/3 traveling around to a bunch of national parks in the states – Glacier, ZIon etc…. and the last 1/3 I'd spent Indonesia and Australia diving and just generally living on the water.
Either that or plan a year of touring and go sing and play in shitty dive bars all around the world.
take your mcdowell to work day?